Author(s): Séverine Laborie The Raft of the Medusa—a major work in French 19th-century painting—is generally regarded as an icon of Romanticism. It depicts an event whose human and political aspects greatly interested Géricault: the wreck of a French frigate off the coast of Senegal in 1816, with over 150 soldiers on board. The painter researched the story in detail and made numerous sketches before deciding on his definitive composition, which illustrates the hope of rescue. A contemporary event Géricault drew his inspiration from the account of two survivors of the Medusa—a French Royal Navy frigate that set sail in 1816 to colonize Senegal. It was captained by an officer of the Ancien Régime who had not sailed for over twenty years and who ran the ship aground on a sandbank. Due to the shortage of lifeboats, those who were left behind had to build a raft for 150 souls—a construction that drifted away on a bloody 13-day odyssey that was to save only 10 lives. The disaster of the shipwreck was made worse by the brutality and cannibalism that ensued.

Géricault decided to represent the vain hope of the shipwrecked sailors: the rescue boat is visible on the horizon—but sails away without seeing them. The whole composition is oriented toward this hope in a rightward ascent culminating in a black figure, the figurehead of the boat. The painting stands as a synthetic view of human life abandoned to its fate. Dissecting the subject Géricault spent a long time preparing the composition of this painting, which he intended to exhibit at the Salon of 1819. He began by amassing documentation and questioning the survivors, whom he sketched; he then worked with a model and wax figurines, studied severed cadavers in his studio, used friends as models, and hesitated between a number of subjects. The result of this long preparatory period can be seen in two sketches now in the Louvre (RF 2229, RF 1667). There followed the period of solitary work in his studio, spent getting to grips with a vast canvas measuring five meters by seven. The pallid bodies are given cruel emphasis by a Caravaggio-style chiaroscuro; some writhe in the elation of hope, while others are unaware of the passing ship.

The latter include two figures of despair and solitude: one mourning his son, the other bewailing his own fate. These figures reflect the Romantic inspiration that fueled the work of both Géricault and Gros, and the former's admiration for the latter (see The Plague-Stricken in Jaffa). A hint of scandal Géricault's Raft was the star at the Salon of 1819: "It strikes and attracts all eyes" (Le Journal de Paris). Critics were divided: the horror and "terribilità" of the subject exercised fascination, but devotees of classicism expressed their distaste for what they described as a "pile of corpses," whose realism they considered a far cry from the "ideal beauty" incarnated by Girodet's Pygmalion and Galatea (which triumphed the same year). Géricault's work expressed a paradox: how could a hideous subject be translated into a powerful painting, how could the painter reconcile art and reality? Coupin was categorical: "Monsieur Géricault seems mistaken.

The goal of painting is to speak to the soul and the eyes, not to repel." The painting had fervent admirers too, including Auguste Jal who praised its political theme, its liberal position (the advancement of the "negro", the critique of ultra-royalism), and its modernity. For Michelet, "our whole society is aboard the raft of the Medusa [...]." Bibliography - LAVEISSIERE S., MICHEL R., CHENIQUE B., Géricault, catalogue d’exposition, Grand Palais 1991-1992, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, 1991. Technical description Théodore GÉRICAULT (Rouen, 1791 - Paris, 1824) Le Radeau de la Méduse Salon de 1819 H. : 4,91 m. ; L. : 7,16 m.

Acquis à la vente posthume de l'artiste par l'intermédiaire de Pierre-JosephDedreux-Dorcy, ami de Géricault, 1824 , 1824 INV. 4884 The Raft of the Medusa The Raft of the Medusa The Raft of the Medusa measures approximately 16' x 23' and was painted by Théodore Géricault between 1818 and 1819. The painting lives at the Louvre in Paris, France. The Pogues evidently thought highly of the painting. It was modified to be the cover of the Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash release. Jem Finer also wrote a song titled " The Wake of the Medusa " for the Hell's Ditch release. "THÉODORE GÉRICAULT (1791-1824) studied with an admirer of David (P. N. Guérin), but in the pupil the rigid neoclassicism of the Davidian school receded to allow David's use of sharp light and shade to come to the fore.

Géricault's work is also characterized by a maturing of the naturalistic element and further movement toward the dramatic presentation of contemporary events on huge canvases. For Géricault (unlike his predecessors), these events did not always demand a central hero. His masterpiece, Raft of the Medusa, shows these influences as well as those of Michaelangelo and Peter Paul Rubens. Géricault took for his subject the ordeal of the survivors of the french ship Medusa, which had foundered of the west coast of Africa in 1816, laden with Algerian immigrants. This incident was the result of tragic mismanagement and provoked scandal in France when the survivors were able to tell their stories. Géricault's depiction of the anguish of the event was construed by the government as an outright political attack. The artist avoided showing the most horrific aspects of the tragedy - murder, cannibalism, and immense hardship - in choosing to depict the dramatic moment when the frantic castaways attempted to attract the attention of a distant ship that was eventually to rescue them. Fifteen survivors and several corpses are piled onto one another in every attitude of suffering, despair, and death (recalling Gros's Pest House) and are arranged in a powerful X-shaped composition.

One light filled diagonal axis stretches from bodies at the lower left up to the figure of the black man, raised on the shoulders of his comrades and waiving a piece of cloth towards the horizon. The cross-axis descends from the storm clouds and dark, wind filled sail at the upper left to the shadowed upper torso of the body trailing in the open sea. "Although baroque tactics abound, Géricault's use of shock tactics, stunning the viewer's sensibilities, amounted to something new - a new tone and intention that distinguished the "high" phase of romanticism. In this phase, an instinct for the sublime and the terrible, qualities celebrated in the esthetic theory and art of the eighteenth century (see, for example, Fuselli's Nightmare), found sharpest expression in a method of reportorial accuracy far more stringent than that found in certain works by David. The value Géricault placed on accuracy in Raft of the Medusa is indicated by the fact that he carried out prodigious research and completed numerous preliminary studies for the work, even going so far as to interview survivors of the wreck.

[...] "In Géricault's paintings, suffering, death, and madness amounted to nature itself, for nature, in the end, is formless and destructive." * This scan of the painting originated at the Louvre's web page, at . * - From Art Through the Ages, Ninth Edition, Vol. II by De La Croix, Tansey, and Kirkpatrick (Copyright 1991, 1986, 1980, 1975, 1970, 1959, copyright 1948, 1936, 1926), pp. 873-874 ISBN: Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (by Tree) | Art & Perception Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (by Tree) Posted by Steve Durbin on October 17th, 2007 In June of 1816, the ship Medusa set sail with three other ships to the Senegalese port of Saint-Louis, which had been given to the French by the British as a show of good faith to the reinstated French king, Louis XVIII.

The ship held nearly 400 people, including the new governor of Senegal and his soldiers and 160 crew members. The captain was Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys, a 53 year-old man who had not been to sea in twenty-five years and had never commanded a ship before. Wanting to make good time, the Medusa stuck close to the African shoreline and quickly outpaced the other ships. Unfortunately, it was too close to shore and inevitably hit a sandbar. Attempts were made to throw overboard extra weight in the hope of raising the ship out of the muck and floating out with the tide, but de Chaumereys wouldn’t allow the crew to get rid of the cannons for fear of angering his constituents back in France. Eventually, everyone was forced to abandon ship. The wealthy and well connected were given space on the lifeboats while the rest, 149 people, were forced onto a makeshift raft which was tied by a rope to one of the lifeboats. At some point, the raft was either intentionally or accidentally cut loose. What followed was a two week nightmare of stormy seas, brutal murders, insanity and cannibalism.

Just fifteen men survived the ordeal, and five of them died shortly after their rescue. The tragedy became a major news event and scandal of its day. De Chaumereys was court-martialed, then acquitted because the French feared ridicule from the British for putting de Chaumereys in charge in the first place. Two years later, the artist Théodore Géricault revealed his massive (16’x23’) painting, Raft of the “Medusa” (see Louvre site for details and a larger image). Géricault had thoroughly researched the subject by reading a pamphlet written by two of the survivors; he went to hospitals and morgues to study the dying and the dead (and even severed body parts which he let decay in his studio) and he set a raft out on the sea to see how it rode the waves. He also worked from live models and interestingly, the artist Eugène Delacroix was one of them. He is the corpse lying face down, arms outstretched, in the center of the composition. The painting is a Romantic painting, a movement that closely followed the Neoclassical movement in nineteenth century France.

The style relies on the drama and fluidity of the Baroque movement and utilizes loose brushstrokes, a strong palette, the sharp contrast of light and dark, and dramatic poses. The subject matter for Romantic paintings often came from literature but also included social criticism. Géricault was strongly influenced by Michelangelo, as were nearly all Neoclassical and Romantic painters, and therefore painted idealized, muscular bodies, which in this case would’ve been a strong contradiction to how the men really looked. Note there are twenty figures in the composition rather than the accurate number of fifteen. Compare this painting to Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel to see similarities in figures. The massive size of the painting is in keeping with traditional historical paintings, although the subject was a current event and unlike most historical paintings, there is no clear-cut hero(s). Instead we have victims. People who are literally cast off because they exist on the lower rungs of society; they are at the mercy of the more crass machinations of society and clearly, in the end, it’s every man for himself. A striking feature of the painting are the interlocking triangles, a common feature in Renaissance and Baroque paintings, and one that expresses Géricault’s academic training.

Much has been made of the fact that the figure at the apex of the pyramid, who is waving a flag to a distant ship, is an African man; a very uncommon choice at this time in history. The people on the raft are divided into four groups; the dead and dying are at the center, then there are those struggling to stand up, a third group is comprised of three figures huddled together by the mast with one gesturing, and the fourth group is capped by the African waving the flag. Studying the painting from left to right, the physicality of the figures intensifies but not necessarily the emotional drama. The figures in the foreground display deep anguish and despair while the faces of the more active figures are a bit blurred or hidden in shadow or not seen at all. Note the seated figure in the foreground of the despondent father who holds onto the body of his dead son. And as to the ship in the distance, despite knowing the story, the viewer never knows for sure if the ship the Argus is coming or going. In fact, the Argus did indeed disappear for more than two hours, causing even more panic and despair, before reappearing and rescuing the survivors.

The sky and water are definitely Romantic in nature as they also depict drama, shadow and light, and convey the strong forces that humans are often at the mercy of. Géricault spent a year just working on the sky and ocean. The scene is abruptly foreshortened to add to the drama. This combined with a receding horizon are effective tools to include the viewer in the scene. I can only imagine what the painting is like at eye level; Géricault wants our empathy. At the 1819 Salon, the painting was titled Scene of a Shipwreck in order to avoid criticism from the French government; a disconcerting decision considering how obsessed Géricault was with the creation of the work. Unable to find a buyer, Géricault exhibited the painting to the public in continental Europe and England and charged an admission fee, a popular trend at the time. 40,000 people came to see the work in London and it was viewed with horrified fascination. Eventually, the work did sell. It was saved by the French government from a group of French nobility who intended to cut the work up and sell it piecemeal. It can now be seen at the Louvre.

Géricault died about five years after its completion at the age of thirty-two. The existential implications of this work are potent. In his brilliant novel, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Julian Barnes writes of this painting, “We are all lost at sea, washed between hope and despair, hailing something that may never come to rescue us.” The Raft of the Medusa | artble.com The Raft of the Medusa The Raft of the Medusa The Raft of the Medusa Date of Creation: The Raft of the Medusa Story / Theme Critic Jonathan Miles’ account of the disaster: "Crazed, parched and starved, they slaughtered mutineers, ate their dead companions and killed the weakest." The Raft of the Medusa Theodore Gericault The Raft of the Medusa Theodore Gericault Painted when Géricault was just 27 years old, The Raft of the Medusa is considered an instant classic of the Romantic Movement. In its brutality, realism, and raw emotion it captures the essence of a historic event that shocked the French public, a Revolution-weary public that was not easy to shock.

The story behind the painting is as devastating as the desperation on canvas. The Medusa was a French naval vessel that was on course off the coast of Africa before running aground on a sandbar near Mauritania on July 2, 1816. After three days of trying to free the ship from where it was stuck, the crew and passengers took to the ship's six small lifeboats. The problem was that there were 400 people on board, while the boats only had the capacity to carry approximately 250. As a result, 146 men and one woman were loaded onto a wooden raft that was both shoddily and hastily constructed. With only one bag of biscuits, two casks of water, and several casks of wine, the people adrift experienced a hellish 13 days at sea. There was a great deal of infighting, with many people being thrown overboard, throwing themselves overboard, or cannibalized. By the time they were finally rescued, only 15 men had survived. This caused a huge scandal at home due to the slow response of the French government in the rescue.

The Raft of the Medusa Inspirations for the Work Michelangelo The greatest inspiration for this painting was the true story of the tragedy. When news of what had happened reached France, the public was rightfully shocked and Géricault seized this opportunity to capitalize without commission on the event. He foreshadowed the turn towards realism that would be seen in his own lifetime and the modern use of the media as a political tool. In addition, a multitude of prior artists' influences can be seen in The Raft of the Medusa. Baroque lighting: The tone and lighting utilized in The Raft of the Medusa are taken straight from the Caravaggio playbook. Intense chiaroscuro and use of tenebrism create a dramatic background against which the survivors stand out as a stark testament to humanity. John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark: Copley, an American painter, depicted the attack of a 14-year-old orphan named Brook Watson by a ravenous shark in Havana, Cuba. He lived to become friends with Copley.

T he influence on The Raft of the Medusa can be seen both in the subject matter, which treats a contemporary subject, but also in the idealization of the boy's form and the pyramidal composition. Michelangelo's Last Judgment: There is a clear influence of Michelangelo's Renaissance vision of Classicism in the idealized muscular forms of the bodies on board the ill-fated raft. Géricault himself stated of Michelangelo's Last Judgment that "Michelangelo sent shivers up my spine, these lost souls destroying each other inevitably conjure up the tragic grandeur of the Sistine Chapel. " Though in reality the survivors would have been sickly and emaciated, he painted them as vigorous, muscular youths. The Raft of the Medusa Analysis The Raft of the Medusa Theodore Gericault The Raft of the Medusa Theodore Gericault A landmark work for a multitude of reasons, The Raft of the Medusa was not only one of the first paintings created without a commission, but was also one of the first paintings of the Romantic Movement. Composition: The action is arranged in two distinct pyramidal shapes.

The diagonal lines lead the eye to two key peaks: the wave that may or may not engulf the survivors on the raft, and the flag in the top right corner that is raised in a last gesture of hope to the ship that may or may not rescue them. At this point in their story it is uncertain what will happen to the survivors. The two pyramids serve to isolate the two distinct possibilities: rescue or massacre. Color palette: Géricault utilized a somber, dramatic color palette that was characteristic of Romantic painters. As the focus of the painting is the mass of corpses, flesh tones are present in abundance. Warm shades such as ochre, burnt sienna, umber and deep brown were used in contrast to the deep blue of the stormy sea. Lighting and tone: The tone of the painting is as dark as the subject matter. Géricault draws from the Baroque with his lighting scheme, heavy on chiaroscuro and tenebrism, the stark contrast between light and dark. The light of the sky contrasts sharply with the darkness of the sea and the overall tone of impending doom.

Figure studies: For the amazingly life-like and eerie quality to the bodies, Géricault worked figure by figure, completing the sketching and painting of each body before moving on to the next one. He had closely studied cadavers in the local morgue, bringing home severed limbs and heads. Géricault employed live models, mainly friends and assistants, to pose for him in the cadaverous poses. He painted directly from these live models instead of from preparatory sketches. The Raft of the Medusa Critical Reception The Raft of the Medusa Theodore Gericault Joseph Mallord William Turner London When he painted The Raft of the Medusa, Théodore Géricault was very deliberate in his message; this was not art for art's sake, nor some silly Rococo parlor trick - this was art for agitation purposes. A political man who had even joined the French Musketeers out of his idealism, Géricault was not one to shy away from what he believed in. This was met with a mixed reaction from critics and the French public alike, and the painting even now in its violence and heartbreak cannot help but make modern audiences shudder in its powerful presence.

Contemporary reception: First exhibited under the more generic title of Scene of Shipwreck at the Paris Salon in 1819, there was no confusion in the contemporary viewers' minds as to what the real subject matter was. The events of the Medusa were fresh in the Parisian collective consciousness. Although classically idealized visually, the painting was fairly explicit in subject matter for the era. Particularly after the cold rationalism and clean lines of Neoclassicism, it was meant to shock. Critics took the bait, either responding to the work with lavish praise or infinite detriment. One polarizing element was the inclusion of a black man holding the flag that could bring about their salvation. This was Géricault's personal statement on the abolitionist movement. Political digs like these were what kept the public talking. London reception: A highly sensitive man, Géricault was so exhausted after the initial showing of his masterpiece that he became a hermit. Eventually though, he would reemerge to try his statement on a new audience. The piece was a great success in the Salons of London when Géricault took it on tour in 1822, after he had recovered from the mixed reviews in Paris.

It reverberated with fellow Romantic artists such as J. M.W. Turner as well as the critics of the era. Modern day reception: This pivotal work of the Romantic era is still considered a masterpiece, now more than ever. As one critic, Kenneth Clark states, The Raft of the Medusa "remains the chief example of Romantic pathos expressed through the nude; and that obsession with death, which drove Géricault to frequent mortuary chambers and places of public execution, gives truth to his figures of the dead and dying. Their outlines may be taken from the classics, but they have been seen again with a craving for violent experience. " Indeed in a modern society that relishes images of realistic violence, the painting takes on a new validity. The Raft of the Medusa Related Paintings The Gulf Stream Winslow Homer While completely unique in that The Raft of the Medusa depicted a specific current event of the era, the wreck of the ship "Medusa" off the shore of Africa, shipwrecks have long been a common theme for painters. This is especially true after the wild success of Géricault.

Works by Gericault; Nude Warrior with a Spear Theodore Gericault Along with the rest of the French public, Géricault too was scandalized by this event and wished to immortalize it in an artistic statement. He chose the most dramatic moment, the point after 13 days adrift at sea when the few survivors spy a rescue mission at last and are infused with a shot of hope. The raft is shown on the brink of sinking into the ocean, strewn with corpses and the near-dead. To prepare for this composition, Géricault spent a fair amount of time in morgues studying corpses and degrees of composition, bringing severed limbs and even a severed head back to his studio to do in-depth studies of precise stiffness and gore. The result is a disturbing and macabre testament to the power of human depravity and the ultimate triumph of hope. The Raft of the Medusa was a polarizing political commentary that is generally considered to be the young Géricault's masterpiece, and is still one of the most talked about paintings in the world today. The reason for this is clear in looking at the painting with its masterful composition and violent realism.

Frail, brooding and sensitive, Géricault was as romantic as a Romantic painter could be. While he began his career with grand military statements for the Emperor Napoleon, it was his later works, with their emotional brutality and raw empathy, which captured the hearts of audiences for generations. Viewing works such as The Raft of the Medusa is a grueling experience even now in the stately confines of the Louvre. Unfortunately his death at an early age prevents us from knowing how much further into the depths of humanity Géricault was capable of plunging. The Raft of the Medusa Art Period Géricault, Raft of the Medusa (video) | Khan Academy Géricault, Raft of the Medusa Spain Video transcript (music) ("In The Sky With Diamonds" by Scalding Lucy) Beth: We're in the Louvre and we're looking at Géricault's enormous painting, the Raft of the Medusa from 1819. Steven: This is actually about an event that had taken place only three years earlier. The story very quickly is that there was a merchant vessel that was often off the coast of Africa, it hit a storm and the captain realized that the ship was going down.

He asked the carpenter to take some of the lumber from the ship and to fashion a raft because there were not enough lifeboats. For the most part, the crew and the captain took the actual lifeboats and put the rest of the passengers on the raft. They were going to tow the raft behind them, but when the captain saw that he couldn't make any way pulling the raft, he actually ordered that the rope be cut. Beth: 150 people were on the raft and only 15 of them survived after just 10 days. Géricault shows us the moment when they see the ship that will save them on the horizon; they've just glimpsed it and they're frantically waving down this ship. The Raft of the Medusa is the size of a history painting and yet it is not a history painting, it is not mythology, it's not history, it's not a religious painting, it is a contemporary subject.

Steven: The artist has worked for years in his studio to replicate, and accurately as possible, the shipwreck going so far as to actually ask the same carpenter to rebuild the raft in his studio; to go to the morgue, to look drowned bodies, to study everything he could to make it as precise as possible and yet, this is not photographic in any way. This is using all of the traditions of history painting in order to create this tour de force, this incredibly powerful, emotional image. Beth: For all of his efforts to be accurate in some ways, rebuilding the raft, reading of all the newspaper reports ... Steven: Going to the trial actually, where the captain had been indicted. Beth: Right, and as you said, going to the morgue, surrounding himself at times with decapitated heads and amputated arms and limbs in order to keep himself in a kind of gruesome frame of mind of death and mortality. It still has aspects that draw on the tradition of religious painting and history painting. He's obviously looking at Caravaggio. We have strong contrasts of light and dark. The figures are more heroic and healthier than they would have been when they were rescued.

There's this strange mixture that we often see actually in romanticism and this is a kind of proto-romantic painting of mixtures of the real and the unreal. Steve: This is a painting, first and foremost, that is about the relationship between man and nature, and the relationship between man and man. Look at the spectrum of emotion that exists in this painting. This is a painting that's about feeling, but it's an expression of feeling through the physical body and so this is an artist who's looked at Michaelangelo quite clearly, but if you start at the bottom left of the painting and you look at the older man who's mourning the now drowned body of his son, this is terrible despair. As you move upward towards the upper right into this apex of hope as we see people trying to flag down that distant ship which seems almost impossible for them to be seen. There's this crescendo of optimism as it moves from lower left to upper right. Look at the bodies, there's so much darkness amongst them it almost seems like those limbs might not belong to individuals, but they are part of some multi-limbed beast. Beth: That rises on this receding diagonal back into space.

Steven: That diagonal is like a wave that counters the real wave which is on the left. Beth: That idea of fusing bodies into a single action is something that Géricault would have borrowed also from Baroque art. If you study all the sketches Géricault created for this painting, and he did dozens of sketches and several oil sketches and worked on it, as you said, for a long time, you see that what he worked toward it moving the raft more and more into the viewer's space. It's not taking place in the middle ground. It's not even taking place in the foreground, it's taking place in our space, foreshortened down into the viewer's space, really making this effort to engage us very directly and very emotionally. Steve: That raft looks like it is literally hitting the frame, doesn't it? Beth: Exactly. Steven: Those bodies, both the one whose head is hidden from us and probably just underwater, seems like it's literally just under the frame of the canvas. Beth: The other really important thing about this painting is not just that Géricault took this contemporary subject and painted on the scale and in the style of a history painting, but that he took a politically sensitive subject.

The issue was that the captain of this ship who had abandoned these people on the raft had been appointed by the king despite the fact that he didn't really have the qualifications to be the captain of a ship like this. This is an indictment of the monarchy and it's important to remember that we're at the period in French history called the Restoration. The monarchy has been restored. The French revolution had failed. Napoleon had become emperor. Napoleon had been deseated and a king, a monarch, was once again on the throne of France. A corrupt monarch was once again on the throne of France. Exhibiting this painting was really rubbing salt in that wound. Steven: What's interesting is that humanity is brought down to its essential form here. All of the pomp and ceremony of the court certainly has been stripped away. This is a painting that is about man and his essence. Beth: If we look back to neoclassicism, [David] has given us heroic figures who were willing to sacrifice themselves for a cause, for what was right, for liberty and equality. Here we have figures who have nearly died, and many of their compatriots had died, all because of corruption.

There's no heroism, there's no cause, there's no patriotism, we've really left neoclassicism far behind and we're moving toward romanticism. Steven: Romanticism and this painting, it's the triumph of emotion itself. (music) ("In The Sky With Diamonds" by Scalding Lucy) Théodore Géricault | The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819) | Artsy biography articles Théodore Géricault created one of the most iconic masterpieces of French Romanticism, the Raft of the Medusa (1818-19). Depicted on a monumental scale, Géricault portrayed in horrifying explicitness scenes of a shipwreck based on a contemporary event in which the captain had deserted his crew and passengers, leaving them to die. The painting’s allusions to governmental negligence and corruption ignited great controversy and brought Géricault widespread attention. Although he died young, his candid representations and bold style influenced many of his contemporaries, including Eugène Delacroix , who served as one of the models for the Raft of the Medusa.

French, 1791-1824, Rouen, France, based in Paris, France 15 Things You Should Know About 'The Raft of the Medusa' | Mental Floss 15 Things You Should Know About 'The Raft of the Medusa' filed under: art Like us on Facebook A wrenching scene of shipwrecked men helpless in the grips of the ocean, Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa is heralded as one of the most influential works of French Romanticism. But the story behind this 1819 painting is far richer and more tragic than you might imagine. 1. Its muse is not myth but history. The Medusa (or Méduse) was a French naval frigate that boasted 40 guns and fought in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Remarkably, the ship survived these maritime battles only to crash on a sandbank in 1816 during an attempt to colonize Senegal. A shortage of lifeboats sent sailors scrambling to build a raft. Only 10 of approximately 150 people who boarded the raft lived through this catastrophe.

Shortly thereafter, Géricault drew his inspiration from the accounts of two survivors. 2. Géricault did exhaustive research before laying brush to canvas. Obsessed with this tragic tale, Géricault not only interviewed and sketched the Medusa crewmates, but also read everything he could find about the harrowing event. He even attended the indictment trial of the ship's captain, Viscount Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys. Dozens of sketches followed. Géricault experimented with various models and wax figures, studied drowned cadavers at the morgue, and carefully planned how to fill the massive canvas he'd prepared for his masterpiece. 3. It's bigger than you'd expect. The Raft of the Medusa measures roughly 16 feet by 23.5 feet, making it almost as large as life—the raft itself was 23 feet by 66 feet. 4. Géricault even had the raft reconstructed. The carpenter Chaumareys tasked with transforming the doomed Medusa into a raft was employed by the painter to build a true-to-life model in his studio. From there, Géricault used the raft as an eerie model. 5.

The Raft of the Medusa depicts the latter part of a 13-day journey. There were approximately 150 seamen on the Medusa, and they died quickly and gruesomely. The first night, 20 expired from suicide, fighting, and being washed overboard. By day four, only 67 remained. To staunch their starvation, they turned to cannibalism. On the eighth day, things went from really bad to brutal as the hardier survivors pitched overboard the weak and wounded, still alive but helpless to save themselves. By July 17, 1816, only 15 men remained when a ship called Argus happened upon them, rescuing this surviving 10 percent; five died soon afterward. 6. A sign of hope lies on The Raft of the Medusa's horizon. The men toward the painting's right side flail to snare the attention of a potential rescue boat so far in the distance it's easy to miss.

Some scholars read this element as representing the vanity of hope, since there's no way such a distant ship could see their distress signal, while others suggest this wee ship to be Argus, on the verge of rescuing these sailors from the brink of death. 7. Technically, The Raft of the Medusa is not a history painting. The grand scale of the canvas, the treatment of the subjects, and the fact that it's capturing a true story makes The Raft of the Medusa seem an awful lot like it would be categorized as historical. However, as the piece was completed just three years after the event it depicts, it was too contemporary a capturing to be designated as such. 8. Géricault drew inspiration from Caravaggio. Art historians regard the French Romantic's employment of chiaroscuro on the bodies in The Raft of the Medusa as distinctively reminiscent of the 16th century Italian painter's religious pieces, like The Entombment of Christ . Another nod to Caravaggio is found in the heroic poses struck by Géricault's desperate subjects, whose bodies are noticeably less emaciated than would be true to life. 9. Its blend of authentic and heightened elements makes it a landmark in French Romanticism.

Géricault's diligent research acquainted him with the truth of this horrific experience. Caravaggio's seminal influence gave him direction in how to channel the emotion, resilience, and inescapability of mortality he sought to portray. "There's this strange mixture that we often see in Romanticism," Dr. Beth Harris explains . "This is a kind of Proto-Romantic painting of mixtures of the real and the unreal." 10. The Raft of the Medusa's staging is meant to draw you in. Through the aforementioned sketches, art historians have been able to track Géricault's decision making in this ambitious painting's composition. One major change from the sketches to the final canvas is where the raft is positioned in the frame. An early sketch shows the raft higher up, while The Raft of the Medusa has the barely afloat vessel low, in the viewer's space. It's almost like you could step right through onto that cobbled-together craft and into the shoes of its wretched crew. In this way, Géricault drives viewers to empathetic responses. 11. Early reviews were mixed.

Géricault debuted the painting at Paris's Salon of 1819, where Le Journal de Paris noted, "It strikes and attracts all eyes." But the artist's depiction of these doomed men also struck a chord. Those who favored classicism sneered at what they saw as a "pile of corpses," while Géricault's contemporary, Troubador-style painter Marie-Philppe Coupin de la Couperie, declared, "Monsieur Géricault seems mistaken. The goal of painting is to speak to the soul and the eyes, not to repel." 12. Géricault feared The Raft of the Medusa was a failure. After putting so much of his time and effort into the piece, the 27-year-old artist felt the French art world had rebuffed the painting he thought would launch him. When the exhibit closed, a defeated Géricault cut the canvas from its frame, rolled The Raft of the Medusa up, and unceremoniously sent it to be stored at a friend's home, lamenting , "It's not worth looking at. I shall do better." 13. Luckily, French historians saw The Raft of the Medusa's value.

After the wreck, French society was in an uproar over the royal appointment that had made Chaumareys the Medusa's captain. He was under scrutiny not only for the shipwreck, but also for his actions afterwards. When the Medusa was being abandoned, Chaumareys took to one of the few lifeboats, to which the makeshift raft was tied so the crew might survive together. But when the rickety raft seemed to threaten his vessel, the cowardly captain literally cut ties, abandoning his crew to their fates. The king came under fire for Chaumareys's appointment to captain because the viscount had not been to sea for 20 years prior. He was wildly inexperienced for the voyage. Within this context, Auguste Jal and Jules Michelet both heralded The Raft of the Medusa for its perceived political themes. In the thick of the Bourbon Restoration, the piece was seen as an indictment of the monarchy with Michelet proclaiming, "Our whole society is aboard the raft of the Medusa." 14. Géricault may have tried to downplay the piece's political critique.

Though known today as The Raft of the Medusa, the painting was originally displayed under a far less provocative name: Scene of a Shipwreck. But this named fooled no one. The tragedy of the Medusa and the atrocities of its aftermath were big news just three years before. So this scene was instantly recognizable to the Salon's visitors. It's possible Géricault knew the connection would be made, but hoped the piece would be seen on its own merit instead of as an exploitation of a grim event. 15. Géricault didn’t live to see his homeland embrace The Raft of the Medusa. Upon its debut at the Louvre, The Raft of the Medusa did win a gold medal from the judging panel. However, Géricault was devastated that the institution did not request the piece for its national gallery. The following year, he found fame and fortune in London, when his exhibition of The Raft of the Medusa earned him 20,000 francs (his cut of the door) and praise as an innovator of French art.

Sadly, it wasn't until after his death at age 32 that Louvre curator Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin pursued acquisition of The Raft of the Medusa for the museum's coveted collection. But there it has been cared for and regarded as a masterpiece for nearly 200 years. More from mental_floss... Museum Secrets : Raft of the Medusa To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 9.0.115 or later installed. Click here to get the latest Flash player. Raft of the Medusa The Raft of Medusa by French artist Theodore Gericault Original design sketch of the 20 metre by 7 metre raft Detail of The Raft of Medusa by French artist Theodore Gericault The tomb of Theodore Gericault Portrait of French artist Theodore Gericault Please download the Flash player to see this element. Royal Assassination Why were French sailors marooned? And why did a sea tragedy drive a young artist mad? On July 5th, 1816, a French passenger ship went aground off the coast of Africa. Of 147 crew members consigned to a life raft, only 15 survived.

The Raft of the Medusa is Theodore Gericault's dark depiction of the sailors' plight, cast adrift in shark-infested waters. Why did this tragedy at sea shame France? And why did commemorating the tragedy drive artist Theodore Gericault insane? All is revealed in Museum Secrets: Inside the Louvre. Painting a Tragedy Why were the sailors set adrift? And what depths did they sink to in order to survive? For the answers, we invite you to watch our Web Exclusive Video: Sea Tragedy . Painting a Manifesto Gericault's painting is not simply a portrait of a tragedy. It contains philosophical and political messages for his fellow citizens. To discover these messages, and why their meaning resonates even today, we invite you to watch our Web Exclusive Video: Painting as Manifesto . Further Questions Survivor accounts speak of cannibalism. Yet the artist chose not to show it in The Raft of the Medusa. Did he portray cannibalism in any other painting? The answer is yes. Cannibalism is shown with shocking clarity in this early study . Theodore Gericault: Romantic History Painter, Portraitist Louvre, Paris.

Biography One of the first great exponents of 19th century French Painting , and of the style known as Romanticism , Theodore Gericault lived as well as painted with all the verve of the Romantic style. Blessed with independent wealth, he could indulge his twin passions, for painting and horses, as and when he wished. He had less formal training than most artists of his day, and only applied himself seriously to his art when inspired - as with his great masterpiece, The Raft of the Medusa (1819, Louvre). Influenced by his more academic predecessor Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835), Gericault was a powerful influence on the younger Eugene Delacroix - who became one of the greatest Romantic artists - as well as the populist Parisian history painter and engraver Paul Delaroche (1797-1856). Gericault was also one of the best portrait artists , noted for his haunting realist studies of asylum inmates. His untimely death came after many months of suffering, following a fall from a horse.

WORLDS TOP ARTISTS The Raft of the Medusa Returning to Paris in the autumn of 1817, Gericault was in a quandary. His work had gained power through his study of the Renaissance , but he was dissatisfied with works like the Race of the Riderless Horses which did not depict current events. A child of France's most heroic age, he could not ignore the dynamic representation of contemporary reality as practiced by artists like Gros, nor the influence of the increasingly popular British Romantic writers, notably Byron and Walter Scott. He wanted to paint a subject from modern life in monumental terms. Having experimented rather unsuccessfully with various themes, he came across a pamphlet describing the privations of those who had survived being cast adrift on a raft of a ship called the "Medusa". Abandoned to their fate on a raft by a mutinous crew, the survivors returned to France to tell a horrifying tale of exposure and near starvation, avoided only by cannibalism. Overcome with enthusiasm, Gericault interviewed the authors of the pamphlet, and determined to paint a vast canvas. He toyed with sketches of many different scenes before he settled on the final version, but once decided, he worked with complete dedication.

To force himself to remain in his studio, he shaved his head; and to ensure the correct representation of dead bodies, he worked in the company of corpses. In fact, The Raft of the Medusa (1819, Louvre) is a truly innovative painting, not only in raising a subject from modern life to the proportions once reserved for paintings of the Antique, but also in its construction. Gericault was extremely daring in organizing his painting around a pyramid, which culminates in the figure of the negro waving a rag in the direction of the rescue ship, faintly visible on the horizon. However, this composition gives such power to the expression of hope among the shipwrecked survivors that it succeeds admirably. As a history painting which involves a relatively low-brow theme, The Raft of the Medusa belongs to the tradition popularized by the American painter John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in his painting Brook Watson and the Shark (1778, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC). Unfortunately, neither the French Academy - guardian of the rules of academic art - nor the government saw any benefit in encouraging this type of sensationalism.

Not surprisingly therefore, despite its painterly qualities, the Medusa was not well received by the critics, nor was it bought by the government as Gericault had hoped it would be. Disillusioned by his relative failure after so much intense work, he took the painting to England early in 1820; he made a considerable amount of money by showing it there in a travelling exhibition. Lithography in England In England, Gericault's style again underwent a radical change. He had been, in 1817, one of the first artists to take up the newly invented process of lithography ; he now put this expertise to good use, producing a series of 13 plates illustrating the life of the English poor. These engravings are inspired in part by the genre painting of English artists, although they have nothing of the maudlin sentimentality of the latter. The most important work he produced in England is undoubtedly The Epsom Derby (1821, Louvre). Returning to his first love, horses, Gericault here conceives the movement of that most gracious of animals in entirely new terms.

The whole impression given is one of movement, with the horses shown galloping flat out to increase the feeling of speed. Minor English sporting painters may have suggested this style to Gericault, but it is essentially new, and no echo of it is found in French art until the advent of Edgar Degas , almost 50 years later. Gericault also produced several unusual examples of still-life painting , such as Anatomical Pieces (1818). Portraiture Gericault's entire history is one of change and innovation, and nothing is more novel than his famous series of portrait paintings of the insane. Painted for a Dr Georget, one of the pioneers of psychiatry, each of these mesmerizing examples of portrait art illustrates a different psychotic condition - such as kleptomania, delusions of grandeur, and so forth. It is not certain whether these works were painted by Gericault as a favour to Dr Georget, or whether they were in fact a kind of occupational therapy prescribed by Georget for one of Gericault's frequent bouts of depression. Gericault painted ten of these canvases in all; only five are extant, a fine example being The Mad Assassin (1822).

Their unique quality lies in the fact that they were among the first portraits in the history of art to depict an abnormal mental state as an illness, rather than as a subject for laughter. In any event, they rank among the most striking 19th century portraits , by any artist. Last Years Between his return to France in 1822, and his death two years later, Gericault painted very little, the only really significant work being The Lime Kiln (1823). Successive equestrian accidents weakened him, and as he was unwilling to take good care of himself, he eventually died. Near death, he exclaimed in typical Romantic but essentially untrue fashion: "If only I had painted five pictures: but I have done nothing, absolutely nothing." In fact, critics now suggest that Gericault was one of the key forerunners of modern art , especially in his embrace of the new Realism , without which the likes of Delacroix and Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) might have struggled to achieve their fame. Works by Theodore Gericault can be seen in many of the best art museums throughout the world, notably the Louvre Museum in Paris.

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Question: Who painted ‘The Raft of The Medusa’?
Answer: Gericault